McClaren ads some bite to Dutch football

Arjan Plantinga
Thursday 04 December 2008

Looking at what FC Twente have achieved this season it can be argued that Steve McClaren has given the team from Enschede what it lacked under Fred Rutten: a winning mentality.

Combining the best of both worlds, Dutch skill and tactics combined with English fighting spirit seems an unbeatable strategy.

So often have we seen that we two seemingly opposites join forces wonderful things can happen.

History is full of examples: when Gullit, Van Basten and Rijkaard joint AC Milan, Dutch forward thinking an Italian defensive skills formed an unbeatable team that won all prizes available to them.

When Dennis Bergkamp arrived at Arsenal he was the silver lining to a massive but all-in-all dull, grey English cloud.

A new example of what a combination of the best of two worlds can do is Steve McClaren at FC Twente.

We all know the qualities of Dutch football: skills, tactical awareness and a love for offensive football.

But we also know the shortcomings of players from the lowlands: they are not particularly keen on winning and then to lose their heads when things do not go as planned.

Yet what can you expect when the high priest of the nation's football church - Johan Cruyff - actually thinks that playing good football is more important than winning.

Holland may not have won Euro 2008, but the nation was totally content with beating the World Champions and the runners up of the last World Cup during the group stages.

They had shown the world that in essence they are the best and not having any silverware to back it up with was of minor interest.

FC Twente are typically Dutch for that matter.

It's a young squad with some magnificent talents who will soon move on to bigger clubs: Eljiro Eliah, Wout Brama, and Franco Douglas are not players who will spend the rest of their careers in the Eredivisie.

Last season Twente surprised everybody when they beat Ajax in the final of the Dutch play-offs, but by then everyone had forgotten about the naive way Twente had gone out of the UEFA Cup 8 months earlier against small Spanish club Getafe.

Twente had been better than Getafe but conceded too easily.

English coach Steve McClaren now seems to have changed just that in this new FC Twente.

McClaren failed at the English national team for he lacked the experience and status to take full control of an overestimated bunch of English overpaid superstars.

Fabio Capello seems indeed more suited for that as it takes a mean old dog to get a spoiled pack back in line.

Steve McClaren is not a mean old dog but at Twente he isn't dealing with a spoiled pack.

In Enschede he's got a gang of eager puppies to guide.

Young fellows who can do all the tricks, but who sometimes tend to perform too many or forget what to trick to perform at what moment.

Now there is a man at the helm who has been battle hardened by 15 years of professional football in England and who learned the trade from one of the best in the business, Sir Alex Ferguson.

Yesterday against Schalke Twente showed that the young dogs have listened to McClaren's lessons.

The former Manchester United assistant has taught them that besides sitting down, rolling over and fetching the stick a good dog also knows when to show his teeth and to use them when necessary.

Schalke right back Rafinha is a pain in the arse for every opponent, using everything at his disposal to win a game of football.

Only a year ago Eljiro Eliah would have crumbled under the provocations and physical toughness of the Brazilian, but Eliah has taken in the lessons of McClaren on how an English professional wins games and deals with terriers like Rafinha.

Instead of crumbling Eliah fought back, kept coming at the defender and won the personal duel by a mile.

And the same goes for the whole team.

As the pressure of the Germans mounted Twente bent over backwards, cracked a little but never broke.

It was a sign of maturity that has been brought about by Steve McClaren, who understood that a combination of Dutch skill and English toughness can be a winning combination.